# Juris Upatnieks

Juris Upatnieks (born 7 May 1936 in Riga) is a Latvian-American physicist and inventor, and pioneer in the field of holography.

## Life

Upatnieks fled the Latvia with his parents at the close of World War II, seeking asylum in Germany. In 1951 the family emigrated to the United States. He attended high school in Akron, Ohio, and studied electrical engineering at the University of Akron, where he was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1960. Thereafter he studied at the Institute of Science and Technology of the University of Michigan, where he earned a master's degree in electrical engineering in 1965. From 1973 to 1993 he worked at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan and was an adjunct professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There he taught a laboratory course in optics until 1996. From 1993 to 2001 he was a consultant with Applied Optics in Ann Arbor. From 1996 to 2001 he was also a researcher with the faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Michigan.
In 1964 he demonstrated, with Emmett Leith, the first three-dimensional holograms in the United States and together with Leith published a series of technical papers from 1962 to 1964.
As of 2009 Upatnieks holds 19 patents. Among them is a holographic gunsight.
In 1975 he received the R. W. Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America and 1976 the Holley Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was named "Inventor of the Year" in 1976 by the American Association for the Advancement of Invention and Innovation. He is a member of the Optical Society (Fellow) and of International Society for Optical Engineering, as well as a member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, whose Great Medal he received in 1999. In 2010, he received the Emmett N. Leith Medal.

## Patents

Upatnieks is holder or co-holder of twenty United States Patents in the fields of holography and coherent radiation.
| Patent number | Subject | Year granted |
| U.S. patent 3,506,327 | Wavefront Reconstruction Using a Coherent Reference Beam | 1970 |
| U.S. patent 3,532,407 | Spatial Frequency Reduction in Holography | 1970 |
| U.S. patent 3,539,241 | Method of Imaging Transparent Objects with Coherent Light | 1970 |
| U.S. patent 3,545,835 | Two-Beam Holography with Reduced Source Coherence Requirements | 1970 |
| U.S. patent 3,548,643 | Holographic Vibration Analysis Method and Apparatus | 1970 |
| U.S. patent 3,580,655 | Wavefront Reconstruction | 1971 |
| U.S. patent 3,637,313 | Method of Imaging Transparent Objects with Coherent Light | 1972 |
| U.S. patent 3,677,617 | Technique of Holographic Data Reduction Utilizing an Additional Diffusing Structure During Reconstruction | 1972 |
| U.S. patent 3,748,048 | Method of Detecting Changes in Specular Surface | 1973 |
| U.S. patent 3,838,903 | Wavefront Reconstruction | 1974 |
| U.S. patent 3,894,787 | Holograms | 1975 |
| U.S. patent 4,012,150 | Holographic Light Line Sight | 1977 |
| U.S. patent 4,057,317 | Hologram Projector | 1977 |
| U.S. patent 4,223,975 | Aberration Correction of Magnified Holographic Images | 1980 |
| U.S. patent 4,277,137 | Coherent Optical Correlator | 1981 |
| U.S. patent 4,643,515 | Method and Apparatus for Recording and Displaying Edge-Illuminated Holograms | 1987 |
| U.S. patent 4,711,512 | Compact Head-Up Display | 1987 |
| U.S. patent 5,151,800 | Compact Hologram Displays and Methods of Making Compact Hologram | 1992 |
| U.S. patent 5,483,362 | Compact Holographic Sight | 1996 |
| U.S. patent 6,674,521 | Optical Method and System for Rapidly Measuring Relative Angular Alignment of Flat Parts | 2004 |